Tuesday, January 10, 2012

ABC New Hampshire GOP Debate

So, this past saturday, ABC hosted the most recent Republican Presidential debate for the 2012 election! Oh, the excitement!

Anywho, in my opinion, it was one of the better debates recently. The past few (especially the one before the Iowa Caucus) have been dreadfully boring. Fortunately this one provided a little bit more entertainment value.

I'm just going to touch on some of the main points/highlights/noteworthy events of the night for those of you who have lives and aren't political junkies life myself.

Here goes!

1. Governor Rick Perry of Texas stated he would, in fact, send troops back into Iraq and pick up on the war where Obama left off. Oh Rick...when will he learn...

2. They cut Ron Paul's mic -- of course. Just as Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) was laying into Rick Santorum for being a "big government conservative" and a "revolving door lobbyist", his mic was cut off. He suddenly stopped mid-sentence and muttered dishearteningly (barely audibly), "There it goes again..." (to which Santorum replied arrogantly, "It's because you're not telling the truth, Ron."). In the last debate, CNN blacked out the Television right as Ron walked onto the stage and the crowd roared in applause. It really is rather shocking and embarrassing the lengths to which our media will go to diminish Ron Paul as a candidate and his libertarian ideals. As someone on reddit put it, "Fuck this gay earth and the media that bashes the one honest politician on stage." Too true.

3. Newt had the balls to pick on Romney regarding his tenure at Bain Capital, and his profiting from disassembling companies and laying off workers. Apparently, the NY Times did an article about how Romney destroyed jobs rather than created them, and Newt quickly made a point of that. Romney weakly replied something along the lines of "Well, of course the NY Times would say that about me...", implying a liberal bias over actual facts about Romney's business past.

4. Jon Huntsman did a particularly excellent job in connecting with the youthful voting demographic. He was concise and charismatic, and tended to forgo jabbing and sparring with his opponents to promote his positions and leadership credentials instead. Huntsman '16 -- I'm calling it right now. Mark my words.

5. At the end of the debate, the moderators asked each candidate, "If you weren't here running for president, what would you be doing on this saturday night?". Ginrich's response was the worst, saying "I'd be watching the college championship basketball game". Several seconds of awkward silence ensued until Santorum kindly said, "Football game, Newt. Football".